Variations on the invulnerability power.

[mathew101281]

I’ve always felt that characters like Shazam, Wonderwoman, Superman etc all come about their imperviousness to physical harm in different ways. Some of my theory comes from actual stuff I’ve read over the years while others are. Just my own head canon.

It’s been explained that Superman has a skin tight invisible force field around his body that absorbs a lot of the damage from physical attacks. I like this explanation for his invincibly. It sounds just as pseudo scientific as the rest of his mythos. It also explains why magic and Kryptonite can hurt him. One, kryptonite radiation disrupts the workings of the force field and magic ignores it all together.

Magic characters like Shazam and Wonderwoman I feel should actually have extreme healing factors. They take damage, but the innate magic in their bodies heals them almost instantly.

Then you have hulking tanks like Mongal or Giganta who are just so physically dense that it takes a lot to penetrate their tough skin. Aquaman is often depicted as invulnerable in this way.

[mathew101281]

I feel clarifying how particular powers work would make fights more interesting, and help separate characters that are otherwise very similar. Shazam is a good example of this. Some say he needs to be in his own universe, but would being separated from where all the other action is taking place really help him or further isolate him from the fans? I’d argue his real problem is that he’s seen by most as just magical Superman. But if you start showing how their powers work differently you can actually show why having both Shazam and Superman and Wonderwoman for that matter on a team makes sense and isn’t redundant.

[DrNewGod]

...It’s been explained that Superman has a skin tight invisible force field around his body that absorbs a lot of the damage from physical attacks. I like this explanation for his invincibly. It sounds just as pseudo scientific as the rest of his mythos. It also explains why magic and Kryptonite can hurt him. One, kryptonite radiation disrupts the workings of the force field and magic ignores it all together...

That was one of the things about Byrne's run that I liked. Superman was unquestionable strong and durable, but most of his abilities seemed to be psionic.

I feel clarifying how particular powers work would make fights more interesting, and help separate characters that are otherwise very similar. Shazam is a good example of this. Some say he needs to be in his own universe, but would being separated from where all the other action is taking place really help him or further isolate him from the fans? I’d argue his real problem is that he’s seen by most as just magical Superman. But if you start showing how their powers work differently you can actually show why having both Shazam and Superman and Wonderwoman for that matter on a team makes sense and isn’t redundant.

DC as a publisher and its fans have been historically bad at resisting "somebody has to be the most" arrangements. It's typically been The Spectre, Superman, and then everybody else. Marvel was much better at that for decades, making the exact relative strength between Thor and The Hulk ambiguous (think they finally got around to crowning The Hulk, but that's relatively recently). Point is, if they are in the same continuity, DC will feel obliged to establish that Superman is superior to The Current Character That Resembles (The Real) Captain Marvel

[Restingvoice]

I haven't read a lot so this is the first time I heard about the skin-tight force field.

I always imagine it like an immune system that he maintains by sunbathing. The more he absorbs sun rays the harder his skin. The longer he's out of the sun, it got softer, but it's not instantaneous, as the invulnerability is built over time in space and throughout him growing up on earth.

Kryptonite radiation works the opposite. It softens the skin, or reverse the effect of the sun on him, but more instant. They're like poison or sickness, dropping down the immune system significantly.

Magic works on Superman because it's not physical. Magic is often the way to bypass physical limitations, so it bypasses this immune system as well.

Wonder Woman is a demigod now so that's the easiest way to explain her invulnerability, but even when she's made of clay, she's created/crafted/blessed by the gods and imbued her with godly powers, so godly power/magic is still the main reason and it can be biological, innately inside her and can't be taken away, or it can be like a spell and can be taken away by the gods that gave it to her.

It doesn't need to be a healing factor, the gods just made her that way.

Shazam is Solomon, Hercules, Zeus, and others I forget, sorry, I'm not as familiar with him, but if his power is magic-based and only applies during his transformation, then it's not biological. When he gets his adult body, that invulnerability is also activated.

It doesn't have to be an instant healing factor or even an invisible barrier. Just that his adult body came pre-packaged with the invulnerability as part of this transformation magic.